Page 99 of I Knew You Were Trouble

‘Mmm, I don’t recall,’ I lie.

‘Poppy Elizabeth Dean!’

Uh-oh, he’s busting out my full name. Time to come clean.

‘Okay, yes, it was you.’

‘When?’

‘During your lunch with Alexandra,’ I reply, referring to one of his potential matches.

He frowns in concentration. ‘The lunch at City Social?’

‘That’s the one.’

He’s wearing a far-off look, as if he’s trying to remember that day.

‘This waswaybefore I fell for you, don’t forget,’ I hasten to add. ‘Or at least before I admitted it to myself.’

He refocuses on me, his mouth twitching.

‘Anyway, I wanted to make sure that it went as planned, so Freya and I spied on you.’

‘You draggedFreyainto it?’

‘Yes, and she agreed on the proviso that I buy lunch. Only that place was so exxy! I said we had to stick to starters and Freya ordered the scallop. As in singular. And it was twenty-two pounds – for a lone scallop!’

‘You appear to be skirting around the issue, Ms Dean,’ he says with a smirk. ‘Can we revisit the part where you spied on me?’

I sigh. ‘No. It’s water under the bridge now. How about we shoo Saffy off the bed and get to the sex part instead?’

Still smirking, he tilts his head at me knowingly. But then he puts Saffron on the floor, and turns and gathers me in his arm.

I’m off the hook! And if he ever brings it up again, I will stress that it was all in service of the case. Like my surveillance of Kate and Willem.

Hand in hand! Huzzah!

* * *

Kate

‘It’s a shame you don’t get to spend more time in Verona,’ says Margot after I fill her in on the change of plans.

Itisa shame, but as far as consolation prizes go, spending the rest of the weekend in Amsterdam with Willem makes up for it. Now I just need to tell Margot without getting reprimanded for turning one night of rebound sex into a cosy weekend at his.

I listen out and the shower is running, so I can speak freely.

‘Actually, I’m heading to Amsterdam,’ I say with (what I hope is) the breeziest of breezy tones ever to be voiced in the history of humanity.

She doesn’t buy it – not surprising, considering. I’ve always been the opposite of breezy.

‘So, you finally slept with Thor.’

My eyes fly to the bathroom door – still shut, like it was a moment ago. But Willem won’t stay in there forever, so I need this part of the conversation to be over as soon as possible.

‘So how was it?’ she asks before I have a chance to respond. ‘Was it hot and sexy or dreamy and romantic?’

‘Both,’ I reply. Then I giggle –actuallygiggle.

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